Flying above the Amazon's worst afflicted state , Rondonia, is exhausting mostly because of the endless scale of the devastation. At first, smoke disguised the constant stream of torched fields, and copses; of winding roads that weaved into nothing but ash. Below, the orange specks of a tiny fire might still rage, but much of the land appeared a mausoleum of the forest that once graced it.
Rondonia has 6,436 fires burning so far this year in it, according to Brazil's National Institute for Space Research . NASA says the state has become one of the most deforested states in the Amazon. Brazil has 85% more fires burning than this time last year — up to 80,626 nationwide as of Sunday night.
The task is enormous, almost insurmountable. In the areas where the smoke is most intense, the sun barely creeps through to shine off the river. I saw one bird in this natural sanctuary in three hours. Flames seem to move in a steadfast line across the savannah, swallowing whole what forest remains in their path.
As the rate of land clearance reaches one and a half football fields a minute — the statistics for the damage done to the forest emulate the incomprehensible mystery of its vanishing beauty — many analysts fear a tipping point is nearing.
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